Meland Norway

The Meland Foundation derives its name from a place, a spirit, and a family.

The Place: Meland, hardly a village, but a cluster of houses in the countryside of southern Norway, with small farms, close to the fjords. Here lived hardy, rustic people with a great spirit.

The Spirit: a love of home and family and a faith that would reach out to do impossible things in their behalf; to work long and hard; to journey long distances; to face the hazards of land and sea in all kinds of weather; all with a deeply religious faith that sustained them on their journey.

The Family: Meland, Norway was the birthplace of Martin Meland Nelson. In his early days, he lived on the rustic family farm. His education later consisted of learning the skills of carpentry and cabinet making. In the decade of the 1910s, Martin immigrated to the United States making his home and establishing a family in Jersey City, NJ.